Saturday, September 03, 2016

WEEKEND WILDCARD - The Joy of Dedications with Kate Walker

Yesterday on my personal blog I wrote a post about a beautiful card I’d received in the post

that morning. That was a special thank
you from some dear friends who had just received
a copy of my latest book – Indebted to Moreno – and read the dedication in it. Because the book was dedicated to them.

A lot of my books have dedications in them and over the
years I’ve loved being able to write a few special words on the opening pages
to mark the publication of this book and to mark a friendship or a memory along
with it. So because of this card I went
back to look at some of the dedications I’ve made and who I’ve made them to. There are quite a few years to go back, and
quite a few dedications – my first book was published in 1984 – and this new
title is my 65th novel published.

That first book – er – no, I didn’t dedicate that to anyone.
You see, the truth was that I was still so nervous about things, and when I
sent it in I didn’t really think it was going to be published- so . . no dedication. But I made up for that with my second book.
There was really only one person I could dedicate that to – my husband who had
supported and encouraged me through my trial and error period of trying to be a writer. It was just a simple
dedication but it said it all – For Steve. That was Game of Hazard in 1986

The first books were obviously mainly dedicated to family. My son, my sisters, my in-laws - and then there was one really poignant
dedication that came unexpectedly late. After The Chalk Line was accepted, it
was just in time for me to be able to tell my mother about it. But in the exact
same week that I learned the book was accepted, I also discovered my mother had
liver cancer. I tried to write the second book for her but sadly both she and
the book died in the following year. But
because I’ve always believed that you
never throw away anything you’ve written
– it can always be rewritten – I went back to that ‘second’ book some years
later. Chase the Dawn was finally accepted
and published in 1988. And although she
never saw it, this one was always my mother’s
special book.

Through the years friends have had books dedicated to
them and a couple of names have appeared more than once. Broken Silence was for a dear friend Pat who,
apart from my husband had been the only person to know that I was even trying
to write. Broken Silence was the
reworked version of the second novel I’d
ever tried submitting and Pat had
encouraged me to submit that. Sadly,
I dedicated a more recent book Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal to her because, like my mother, cancer took her too
soon and I had to mark her memory with a special title. Broken Silence and Olivero mark most of the
35 years of our friendship.

Luckily the other friend to have two
dedications – Noelle - is still with me
and I am still able to provide her with
the wedding present she and her husband asked for - a copy of everything I wrote. I don’t suppose
they expected that wedding present would still be going all these years – and 65 volumes later! The Babe Magnet of course has had more dedications than anyone – some of the publication
dates have fallen on special anniversaries which is great,.

Many of the dedications have been to special writing friends
– fellow writers like Anne
McAllister, Michelle Reid and Abby
Green, Michelle Styles all of whom have contributed something to the books
dedicated to them – even if, in the case of Abby, it was the inspirational effects of a glass of Kir
Royal in a posh Dublin hotel! And
going right back to 1987 there’s a mention of an elderly

Irish poet called Ewart Milne who was kind enough to buy
me a small, bright yellow, portable typewriter when I was first married and had
no keyboard on which to create my novels.

Through my dedications I’ve been able to thank people who’ve
helped me – with research for a particular topic or, as in the case of The Return of The
Stranger – a thanks to the long ago (l-o-n-g ago) teacher who first introduced
me to the wonderful book that is
Wuthering Heights and so set me on a path that led to my own reworking of this
iconic story, a copy of which is now in the Bronte Parsonage Museum permanent collection which is such a thrill.
I’ve been able to acknowledge wonderful writers who have inspired me –
Mary Stewart, Dorothy Dunnett and
Marjorie Phillips who all helped to introduce me to the dark and
ambiguous hero. There’s also Marguerite
Lees who was the very first Mills and Boon author I

ever met.

Lately a lot of the inscriptions in books have been the result of the teaching
part of my life – classes at Caerleon or Fishguard (specially the Advanced Writing Romance Course in February) or writing retreats because talking about
writing with interested and enthusiastic students always inspires and revise
me. Kept For Her Baby marks a special
(25th anniversary of Writers' Holiday - it's amazing to think that was 5 years ago!

Which brings me full circle to the dedication
for Indebted to Moreno - which is
dedicated to dear friends from Writers Holiday, Alison who is a poet and
teacher and Malcolm who is always there to help if I need him as my tech support
guy.

I haven’t been able to list all the people I’ve dedicated a
book to - and some of the books were
written at a time when I was writing so hard that there wasn’t always time to
think of who to dedicate it to. But looking
back at these inscriptions in each book that does have a dedication, I’ve loved
revising memories, been so happy to think of who is still apart of my life –
and, I’ll admit, I’ve shed a few tears over the ones who are no longer
here.

I always believe that it’s important to tell the people that
you love how you feel about them and I’ve stuck to that in my life. It’s one of the very special delights of being
a published author that I have this special way of showing my feelings to people
I care about - in a permanent way too.
Even if I can’t see them any more, I hope they know what it meant.

All this talk of dedications and the look back at the past
has reminded me of how important the dedications I’ve made were - and as I come to the end of my (I hope) 66th
title – I’m already looking forward to dedicating it to another special
someone - and another one after that . .
.

My latest title - the 65th! is published at the end of

September but the UK edition is on sale on the
M&B site right now.

Also out is a reprint of A Throne For The Taking - which was originally published in June 2013. This is reprinted in a 3 in 1 By Request - entitled Claiming His Princess which is out in August.

2 comments:

Wow, Kate, 65 books!! I started reading Harlequins in my teen years, so I'm sure I read your books back then! That is so cool! And I love that you wrote the special book for your mother even though she'd passed. Bless you! And here's to 65 more books!

Thank you Jill - yes, I find that 65 figure hard to believe myself! I perhaps didn't make clear that the book for my mother was the one I started writing before she died, then couldn't finish - but some years later I took it out and finished it in her honour. Thanks for the wishes on ore books - I'm just finishing what I hope will be 66th.